Fluid control systems conventionally employ a manifold having a plurality of valve assemblies, such as three-way or four-way valve assemblies, mounted thereon for controlling the flow of a pressure fluid (such as air or oil) from a common pressure source to a plurality of different load devices, with the flow of pressure fluid to each load device being independently controlled by the respective valve assembly. While a fluid control apparatus employing a manifold and a plurality of valve assemblies is obviously desirable since it greatly simplifies the complexity of the piping arrangement, nevertheless the known fluid control apparatuses of this type have possessed structural and operational features which have made their usage less than desirable. For example, a conventional manifold is provided with a plurality of openings and passages associated therewith for permitting a plurality of valve assemblies to be mounted on the manifold. However, the openings are normally designed such that different types of valve assemblies are required in order to perform different flow control operations. For example, if two three-way valve assemblies are to be mounted on a conventional manifold with each valve assembly performing a different operation, that is, if one of the valve assemblies is a normally open valve and the other is a normally closed valve, then the known manifolds have permitted this type of operation only by requiring that different types of three-way valve assemblies being provided, one being designed solely for a normally closed operation and one being designed solely for a normally open operation. Needless to say, this severely restricts the flexibility and adaptability of the overall system, and also requires that a larger number of different types of valves be stocked in order to permit maintenance of the system and/or changing of the system to accommodate different load requirements. Also, many of the conventional manifolds have not readily accommodated both three-way and four-way valve assemblies.
In an attempt to improve the flexibility of fluid control systems, some manifolds have been formed from a plurality of separable sections, which sections have different porting arrangements associated therewith so as to accommodate different types of valves, such as a normally open three-way valve, a normally closed three-way valve, or a four-way valve. A plurality of such sections are then suitably connected together in the desired sequence to accommodate the desired number and selection of different valves. This arrangement of the manifold is obviously undesirable since it requires a large number of manifold configurations which are obviously costly to both manufacture and install. This manifold structure also increases the possibility of leakage within the system, and hence increases the maintenance of the system. In addition, a manifold assembled from a plurality of different sections does not provide the system with optimum flexibility, since any variation in the system can be accomplished only by disassembling the manifold and reassemblying the sections thereof so as to provide the desired valve connections.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved fluid control apparatus defined by a combination of a manifold and a plurality of valve assemblies mounted thereon, which fluid control apparatus overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages. More specifically, it is an object of this invention to provide:
1. An apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein the manifold member has a porting arrangement associated therewith which readily accommodates a three-way valve assembly in two different orientations to thereby permit the same three-way valve assembly to function either as a normally open or a normally closed valve, without requiring any structural modification of either the manifold or the valve assembly.
2. An apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein the same porting arrangement also accommodates a four-way valve assembly, in addition to the three-way valve assembly as mentioned above.
3. An apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein the porting arrangement includes a plurality of identical sets of ports formed in the manifold, with each set of ports accommodating a three-way or a four-way valve assembly, as noted above, with the three-way valve assembly being selectively mounted on the manifold in two different orientations to thereby function as either a normally opened or a normally closed valve.
4. An apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein the cooperative porting arrangement between the manifold and the valve assembly provides the system with maximum flexibility by permitting a plurality of valve assemblies to be mounted on the manifold, with three-way and four-way valve assemblies being mounted on the same manifold and cooperating with different ones of the identical sets of ports.
5. An apparatus, as aforesaid, which greatly simplifies the installation of a fluid control system, which minimizes the chances of an improper hookup of the system, which minimizes the number of different valves which must be utilized in order to provide a maximum of valve functions, and which provides maximum flexibility by permitting the interchanging of different valve assemblies in an easy and efficient manner according to the needs of the external load devices.
6. An apparatus, as aforesaid, which is economical to manufacture, and requires little, if any, maintenance.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with systems of this type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.